Flare
by RadiantBeam
Summary: It all started with an accident. Because that was Adora's life lately, it seemed; a series of accidents that she somehow managed to fix just enough to make everything right again, and sometimes to even make things better for other people. So of course, in the end, it was fitting that once again an aspect of her life was changed because of an accident.
1. Day 1: First Kiss

It all started with an accident.

It could have defined Adora's life, at this point; the statement that it all started with an accident. Grabbing the sword in Whispering Woods had been an accident born of curiosity and had spun her off onto this path, befriending Catra had been an accident born of Shadow Weaver trying her absolute best to keep them apart—or so she thought, anyway. Adora found if she went too far back into her childhood, her memories started to get a little hazy.

That part was weird, and probably not normal. Thinking about it too much made Adora's head hurt. She had the sinking feeling lately that despite that, she needed to start thinking about it more.

Knowing her luck, her cloudy memory also tied back to an accident somehow. Because that was Adora's life lately, it seemed; a series of accidents that she somehow managed to fix just enough to make everything right again, and sometimes to even make things better for other people.

So of course, in the end, it was fitting that once again an aspect of her life was changed because of an accident.

* * *

"Glimmer?"

All things considered, the Battle of Bright Moon could be called a smashing success. In fact, there was no _could_ about it; they had been on the very brink of defeat, and had only managed to turn it all around with the help of their allies and an unexpected second wind. The Battle of Bright Moon _was_ a smashing success, and it had been against all odds. They had won, and everyone had survived.

Adora knew this, logically. She could be a very logical person, when she took the time to stop and think. There was no reason for her to still be worried, or to feel uneasy. There would be problems and issues to address, of course—the loss of the Whispering Woods would need to be discussed, and there was no doubt in her mind that Catra and the rest of the Horde would come back. But those were problems that could wait, at least for a little while. Now was the time to relax, to rest, and to celebrate.

Instead of doing any of those things, as Adora knew she should have been doing logically, she was wandering the hall of the castle and following a familiar path to Glimmer's room. All because she had noticed that the princess—general? Was she just the general right now since she had won a major battle, or did both titles apply? She'd have to ask, politics seemed complicated—wasn't out and about in the main chamber with everyone else.

It was a small thing to notice, in the rush of everything. But Adora had noticed it, and it made her feel… well. _Worried_ , to put it mildly. Perhaps a _little_ uneasy. Considering everything that had happened to her friend before the battle, she felt her concern was perfectly justified.

And hey, she was still being logical about this! She'd knocked on Glimmer's door when she'd called her name. She was only a _little_ worried about her, after all.

That worry _did_ increase a little when the only response to her call was silence, but Adora took a deep breath to try and rein in her thoughts. She'd already explored every nook and cranny of Bright Moon before coming here. There was nowhere else Glimmer could be but in her room, unless she'd left the grounds entirely. And she wouldn't have left; not when they had won, not when they were celebrating, and certainly _not_ without telling Adora or Bow.

Right?

Okay, that worry was beginning to not be so little.

Adora took a deep breath. She didn't have the sword of protection with her—she hadn't thought she'd need it and that was _stupid_ of her, in hindsight—so whatever was in Glimmer's room, she would be facing it as just herself. That was fine. She could still make that work. She was more than capable of protecting her friend without She-ra's power behind her.

Another deep breath, and she pushed the door open braced for a fight and nearly fell right into the room when she realized it wasn't locked and opened easily. The blonde stumbled, managed to find her footing, and brace herself against the door so she wouldn't fall flat on her face.

"A-Adora?!"

Well. That yelp definitely sounded like Glimmer, and she _definitely_ didn't sound like she was scared or in pain. Mostly she sounded startled. Feeling her ears start to burn, Adora cleared her throat and hastily straightened up, leaning against the door casually like that had been her intent all along. "Glimmer," she said. "I was just looking for you. I noticed you weren't at the party with everyone else."

Standing in the middle of her bedroom, Glimmer _looked_ like she was okay. There were no obvious wounds on her body, and the glitching she had experienced since their escape from the Fright Zone seemed to have been mended along with the Moonstone. She was still wearing her armor from the battle, and that was something Adora could have easily passed off as either personal preference or a lack of time to change into something more comfortable before the celebration started.

Physically, Glimmer looked perfectly fine.

But she was standing in the middle of her room, all by herself, and she was tightly clutching the staff she'd used in battle with both hands like her life depended on it. Adora wondered what it said about her as a person that she would have vastly preferred having an injury to tend to or an enemy to beat up with her bare hands.

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay," she said at last as the silence stretched on. "I got… worried, I guess."

She didn't know why that admission made Glimmer smile, but it did; her grip relaxed subtly on her staff, and her shoulders loosened up. "Does my mom know you were looking for me?"

"No. Oh, no, I didn't say anything to her. I'm pretty sure she's noticed that you aren't out there, though."

"Of course she did." It was a sigh, before the princess looked down at the staff in her hands. "But she didn't come looking for me, so I guess that's something."

"… Do you, um. Did you _want_ anyone to come looking for you? Because I can leave. Right now. I just realized you might want to be alone. I can just—go and pretend I didn't see any of this." Whatever 'this' was.

"Oh, no! No no no, you're _fine_ , Adora." Glimmer hastily set the staff down carefully as the blonde approached. "I'm just in a weird mood, I guess. I'll go out to see everyone with you, I don't want Mom to worry so much that she _does_ come looking for me." The smile she gave after those words seemed a little forced, even to a former Horde soldier, but it was something.

Something was good, right? Something was still better than nothing, even if it was a small something.

Adora hesitated, then tentatively came a little closer. She stopped next to her friend and leaned forward a little, examining the staff that Glimmer had left. "I saw you using this during the battle," she said. "You looked really good."

Glimmer's smile softened, relaxed around the edges. "Thanks," she murmured. "Mom gave it to me. It used to be Dad's."

Oh.

 _Oh_.

Her father's staff. The same father that had been killed fighting the Horde.

"… Um. Are—are you _sure_ you don't want me to leave? This… has to be a little awkward." It felt a little awkward. It felt a _lot_ awkward. About as awkward as the time Adora had realized she was sitting in the king's chair, with the queen right behind her. Only somehow even more awkward than that, because while Queen Angella was a perfectly nice person and had been far more patient than Adora felt she deserved, she wasn't someone the blonde was terribly attached to. She was on her way there, but she wasn't _all_ the way yet.

Glimmer, on the other hand, was someone Adora was _very_ attached to. Someone she was probably more attached to than she should be, judging by _everything_ that had happened during the botched rescue mission in the Fright Zone, but ignoring that—and she _was_ ignoring that, thank you very much—but someone she was attached to regardless of the truth depth of it.

That attachment made this whole situation _incredibly_ awkward, as she was suddenly and painfully reminded of her past as a Horde soldier. It was strange to feel shamed by the mere presence of a weapon, but Adora couldn't deny the feeling. And so she rambled a little bit, to try and bury the feeling.

"Adora!" Her name came out as a laugh, and the sound of it made her relax—subtly, slightly, but just enough that the awkwardness faded a little bit. Glimmer really had a _pretty_ laugh. "This isn't awkward at all. I mean, if you _want_ to leave, you can."

"No! No, I—I just wanted to make sure you were okay, is all." Her eyes slowly drifted back to the staff. "You fought well with it."

"Mom said the same thing." Glimmer's eyes settled back on the staff. "I'm glad you both think so. It… it means a lot to hear it."

Adora blinked, glancing at her curiously. "Why?"

A small shrug. "It just does. My dad was a really powerful sorcerer, and I'd never fought with his staff before. I wasn't sure it would work for me, honestly."

"Of course it would work for you. Why wouldn't it? You're his daughter."

Another small shrug with no verbal reply; Glimmer's eyes didn't move from her father's staff, even when Adora's gaze settled on her. After letting a moment pass, the taller girl gently nudged her. "Hey," she said softly.

Glimmer blinked and glanced up at her, her smile curious. "Hi," she said.

"It was always going to work for you, Glimmer. You're really strong, and determined, and you were fighting because you wanted to help the people you cared for. Your mom's really proud of you, and I think your dad would be, too."

Adora hadn't planned any of that; she'd had some vague idea of reassuring her friend, of course, but she hadn't actually thought about how she was going to say it. But looking down into Glimmer's eyes, it had all come pouring out before she could stop herself, and she couldn't stop itself because to her it was _true_. She believed it, and she believed it wholeheartedly because Glimmer had proven it was true when it mattered

She hadn't planned it, but maybe it didn't matter because Glimmer was looking up at her stunned and blushing a bit, mouth slightly open, and their gazes locked and held and that was when it happened.

It was an accident. It really was. Adora wasn't thinking, and when Adora didn't think accidents tended to happen. Accidents sometimes happened even when she _was_ thinking, but they seemed to happen the most when she wasn't thinking. And at that moment, she definitely wasn't thinking.

It was an accident, and she wasn't thinking, and it just— _happened_. One minute she'd been looking into Glimmer's eyes, and then she'd gotten caught up in the feeling of the moment and she'd leaned down just as the princess was leaning up, a warm hand on her arm, and she wasn't even sure why her eyes were drifting shut.

She didn't even know what it _was_ , really, beyond the fact that she'd had the sudden urge for it. Just that it felt soft, this brush of her friend's lips against hers, and something inside of her seemed to click suddenly into place after being dislodged for far too long.

It was light, and over far too soon, and Adora opened her eyes in time to meet Glimmer's gaze. "Adora," she breathed, and _oh_.

 _Oh,_ that was a new sensation. Or… no, not a new sensation, not really. She'd felt this once before, this warmth in her chest, this tightness in her throat, back in the Fright Zone. But back then it had been for…

Glimmer's door slammed into the wall with a cheerful song from Sea Hawk and a sigh from Mermista, and Adora jumped away from the princess like she'd been burned. In the chaos of their friends converging in one room to look for their general, she was able to slip back out into the hallway and run.

It had been an accident. And Adora never handled accidents well.

* * *

Of course I've been off this site now for like four years and suddenly the decision to try and write a connected chapter story from shipping week prompts gets me to come back. Chapters will be labeled as days with the appropriate prompt, though I apologize in advance that said chapters probably won't be up on the exact day because this one alone turned out to be like five pages long.

Incidentally, I'm also posting a day early. But eh.


	2. Day 2: Cliche Tropes

Bright Moon hadn't hosted a celebration of this size in a long time. Glimmer couldn't even remember such a celebration being hosted before, probably because before now, well… there hadn't been much to _celebrate_. The Rebellion hadn't been beaten, and had continued to fight on even after Micah's death, but by the same token they hadn't really won after that, either. Their fight with the Horde had simply become about surviving.

But today, they had fought against the Horde and they had won. Today, for the first time in years, the Rebellion wasn't only about surviving. Today, for the first time in years, it actually looked like they had a chance of winning. So of course, there was a celebration. Of course, a lot of people showed up for that celebration, particularly when several princesses had been involved in the battle.

And of course, the celebration had gone on for the rest of the day and quite late into the night. Bright Moon might not have hosted a celebration so large in a long time, but it _had_ once upon a time, and so it was lucky enough to be built with just enough room to house people when they decided to sleep over for the night after a large celebration.

Unfortunately, the last celebration in Bright Moon had happened before Glimmer's life time. So while it was built to _host_ a large celebration, it hadn't been _expanded_ on since then.

And that was how Glimmer was informed that Adora had graciously offered her room for additional bedding when it came up that there would be a shortage of beds. About halfway through the explanation of how this had happened and an apology, the princess held up a hand to silence the staff member. "You spoke to Adora?" she asked.

The young man blinked. Of all of the reactions he'd expected, he… hadn't been expecting that. "Yes," he said uncertainly.

"How long ago did you speak with Adora?"

"Ah… a little while ago?" He wasn't entirely sure where these questions were going, but Glimmer had a particularly intense gleam in her eyes. "I'm afraid I'm not sure how long ago it was. I apologize."

Glimmer sighed and rubbed her eyes. "It's okay, at least you saw her. Everyone _else_ I've asked hasn't been able to find her since Sea Hawk burst into my room to drag me out to the party."

He didn't know how to respond to that, so he didn't. After a moment, Glimmer glanced back at him. "You wouldn't have happened to see where she _went_ at least?" It was almost painfully hopeful. "I can work with a direction. Any general direction, really."

"… I think she went outside?" he tried. "She mentioned going to check on Swift Wind, maybe."

"The stables! Perfect! I mean, Swift Wind _hates_ our stables, but he likes to be there for the other horses, so… it's a place! And I know Adora might be there! Thank you very much!"

He opened his mouth to reply—he was pretty sure he intended to say he was only doing his job and there was no need to thank him, though he did appreciate the politeness Queen Angella had managed to pass down to her daughter—but then he discovered that Glimmer was already gone, simply leaving a small cloud of pink sparkles in her wake.

He blinked a few times, then sighed and went on with his duties for the evening. Princesses were _weird._

* * *

The weather outside of Bright Moon didn't match the calming atmosphere inside the palace. As everyone inside was beginning to settle down for the night and sleep, a storm had broken out. There was no thunder and no lightning, so it wouldn't keep everyone up during the night, but it would still be a pain to be outside in the cold and the wet. It was times like these that Glimmer was grateful for her powers, and she certainly wasn't above abusing them to try and keep herself as dry as possible between the palace and the stables.

Hey, if she had the powers, she was going to use them. They might not have always been effective in combat, but they certainly had their moments. And at this point, she still didn't know yet how her talk with Adora would pan out; it would be a small mercy to at least have it without being completely soaked, on top of potentially having her heart broken.

It was her own fault. She was hoping. She _shouldn't_ have been hoping, after the way Adora had run off, but the hope was there nonetheless. And when she hoped, the letdown always hurt worse than not hoping. But apparently her heart was _horrible_ at listening to her head—a common and recurring problem with her, as much as she hated to admit that her mother was right in that particular regard—and she'd been nursing a minor crush on her taller friend since bringing her to the Rebellion.

A crush that, if she was being totally honest with herself, had been growing from minor to major for some time. A crush that she had largely kept to herself (venting to Bow didn't count!) because she had eyes and she could see that whatever Adora had had in the past in the Horde with the Force Captain named Catra was now all complicated and messy. A crush that she had mostly kept quiet about (venting to Bow _still_ didn't count!) because Adora had been under a constant amount of stress and pressure, and she hadn't wanted to add to it by bringing up _feelings_.

She'd just been trying to be a good friend. Because that was what Adora really needed, more than anything else—a good friend.

Only now they'd _kissed_ and it'd barely been anything, really, but Glimmer was realizing now that her crush was like, _super_ major and before she could say or do anything about it, Adora had managed to slip away and disappear. It shouldn't have been possible with how tall she was, but somehow she'd managed it. Even going to the stable was just on the vague confirmation of a member of the castle staff, and when Glimmer finally blinked into existence inside the barn she fully expected to be met with nothing but baffled and mildly spooked horses.

What she was _actually_ met with was a startled yelp from Adora, who jumped back from the space Glimmer suddenly occupied, tripped over her own feet in the process, and crumbled into an undignified heap into a pile of fresh hay.

Glimmer _didn't_ laugh. She didn't look down at the crumbled form of her friend and snicker after an emotionally charged moment. Nope. She was the perfect picture of composure.

"You know," Adora groaned, "it's not nice to laugh at someone after startling them."

Okay, maybe she laughed a little. She swallowed to compose herself and crossed her arms over her chest, lightly tapping her foot on the ground as she looked down at her taller friend. "It's not nice to run away after kissing someone too, you know."

It was a gentle jab, at most. Despite the uncomfortable coiling in her chest, Glimmer wasn't actually _mad_ ; what little Adora had said about the Horde indicated that they didn't generally do emotions, and what emotions they _did_ allow didn't seem to be the healthy kind of emotions. That she'd reacted this way was… well, expected, she supposed. She didn't think the Horde actively encouraged any kind of romance. It must not have been gentle enough, since blue-gray eyes rapidly shifted between Glimmer and the stable door as Adora measured the distance she'd need to cover to get away.

Glimmer sighed and offered her hand, after a moment. "Don't bother," she said. "It's pouring outside. You'd just get soaked and sick."

"I've never been sick before, actually." Adora took her hand though. Glimmer would like to say she pulled her up, but considering the natural height difference between them it was more like she gave a small tug and the blonde boosted herself up onto her feet the rest of the way.

"Bow tells me it's unpleasant." She let go of the blonde's hand, and tried to tell herself that she imagined the brief flash of disappointment in her eyes. "I'm sorry, I was just having some fun. I'm not mad, Adora."

There was a moment of silence between them, broken only by the sound of the rain outside; Glimmer could have sworn it was her imagination, but it sounded like it was coming down harder than before. Finally Adora shrugged and seemed to shrink into herself, shoving her hands behind her back. "Maybe you should be," she murmured.

Glimmer blinked. "Why?"

"I-I mean—Glimmer, I _kissed_ you."

"Yeah, and I kissed you back."

"Well, you—you did, but… wasn't that your first kiss?"

Glimmer sputtered, cursing herself as she felt her face heat up. "H-How did you know about that?! I mean… how do you even know about first kisses being important? Do they cover it as Force Captain orientation or something?"

Adora had the decency to look sheepish. "Your castle has a huge library, and I had some free time."

Okay so, apparently the former Horde soldier and current host of She-ra had a bit of a romantic streak. That was _stupidly_ endearing.

Glimmer gave up the fight for composure and sighed, plopping down onto the hay and pulling her knees up to her chest as she peered out of the barn to the downpour outside. "If it helps, technically that wasn't my first kiss."

Adora sat down next to her tentatively. "It wasn't?"

"Bow and I kissed when… gosh, I think we were like twelve? We were talking about it, and we wanted to see what the big deal was." She shrugged, her eyes following the trail of rain drops. "It didn't seem like such a big deal after we tried it."

There was a swallow next to her; she heard her friend shift, and after a moment she felt warmth and softness pressing against her side. "And now?"

She didn't look away from the rain. "Now I can see why it's a big deal. I guess it depends on how much you like the person you kiss, and..." She trailed off, sighed. "I like you a lot, Adora."

"… Are you sure about that?" It was so soft that Glimmer would have sworn she'd imagined it, if she wasn't listening.

"… Yeah." She rested her hands down next to her, sneaking a glance at the taller blonde. "You don't—have to feel obligated to like me back or anything, though. I know everything's really complicated for you right now."

That got a quiet laugh from the other girl. "Everything's been really complicated for me for awhile, Glimmer. You and Bow have been like, my only constants since this started."

"I know."

"And I know I haven't talked about it with… anyone, really, and maybe I need to start working on that, but the Horde never like… _encouraged_ emotions. Catra and I were sort of an odd case."

"You don't talk about her."

"I don't know how to. She's..." Adora trailed off into silence, then sighed and dropped her forehead to her knees. "Complicated. A lot of things are complicated with me. You probably shouldn't like me so much."

Glimmer shrugged. "Probably. I still like you a lot regardless. You're really sweet, and you're stupidly noble, and you're utterly _gorgeous_ as either yourself or She-ra." She made a show of tapping her finger to her lips. "Yup, I still like you a lot. I think I was doomed from the moment we met, really."

That got another laugh out of Adora, surprised and amused. "You couldn't stand me when we first met."

" _Clearly_ I changed my mind."

"Clearly." Adora shifted to get more comfortable on the hay, and after a moment she lowered her hands. Glimmer felt the tentative brush of Adora's fingers against hers, and then their fingers laced together and she felt a gentle squeeze.

She tried to ignore the way that simple contact made her heart flutter. Tried, and failed miserably.

"For what it's worth," the blonde said finally, "I like you a lot too, Glimmer. And that _was_ actually my first kiss."

And they probably still needed to talk about that, sometime soon. Because to call the whole thing _complicated_ was an understatement; Glimmer was the princess of Bright Moon, and good will or no Adora was still a former Horde soldier and the host of She-ra. There Adora's whole past with the Horde, and her relationship with Catra. There was still a lot that needed to be settled between the two of them from here.

But for the moment, that could all be settled in the future. Glimmer was perfectly content to wait, particularly when Adora shifted and rested her head against her shoulder, closing her eyes with a small, content sigh.

And maybe she hadn't been planning to spend her night out in the barn, caught in the rain, but Glimmer realized then that she wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

* * *

Apologies again that these will be posted a bit late since this is... turning out longer and a little more detailed than I had planned. This was also originally supposed to be 'sharing a bed' and then somehow ended up being 'caught in the rain'. I'm not sure how.


	3. Day 3: Domestic

They didn't see each other again for a few days, after that rainy night in the stables.

On some level, Adora supposed, it was expected. The main celebration was over, and things were beginning to return to normal. The princesses had all gone home after renewing their vows of commitment to the Rebellion—or in Frosta's case, pledging herself and her kingdom to the Rebellion—and now the clean up and repair started.

She couldn't help much with the planning and the strategy of how to handle the loss of the Whispering Woods. For all of the Horde's planning and tests, no one had ever expected the Whispering Woods to one day be _gone_ , and so Adora had never really considered the possibility that one day it might actually happen. So while Glimmer was in meetings with other higher members of the movement discussing that particular problem, Adora threw herself into helping with repairs around Bright Moon and rebuilding the nearby villages. It kept her hands moving and her mind busy, and she considered that good.

She didn't get to see Glimmer for awhile because of all the rebuilding and repairing and planning, and that was… not _bad_ , exactly. Just disappointing, she supposed, especially after their discussion. She had hoped something more would come of it sooner, and it had seemed to be going that way when they had returned to the castle in the morning quietly holding hands. But then real life had intervened.

The good news was Adora had at least kept busy over the last few days, so she hadn't had much time to worry about what would happen once she got back to Bright Moon and saw the princess again. The bad news was now both the castle and the surrounding area had largely been repaired and cleaned up to their former glory, and the walk back gave her plenty of time to make up for all of the thinking she hadn't been doing before.

"You still worrying about seeing Glimmer again?"

Her current company wasn't helping. Adora didn't groan, but that was only because Swift Wind seemed to take any noise she made in response to his questions as encouragement. She didn't lie, because he had an annoying habit of seeing right through it. So she did the next best thing.

"You know, we could have flown back to Bright Moon by now."

She dodged the question. It didn't seem to work, since all the statement got out of Swift Wind was a snort. He nudged her—gently, mindful of the size difference between them—and brushed his wing over her hair. "Nah," he said. "I like giving you time to think."

Adora gave him a look. "Time to worry, you mean."

"Ha! So you _are_ still worrying about seeing her again!"

"Hey, I'm worrying about a lot of things! And I ended up away from the castle longer than I would have liked anyway, because _someone_ decided that destroying the local stables to free all the horses was a good idea."

Swift Wind grinned. "Well, it _was_. Which reminds me, I still need to talk to the queen about that, I had some ideas I meant to bring up last time I saw her but things got… busy." He paused, then bumped his muzzle against the blonde's shoulder. "And you're still worrying about seeing Glimmer."

Adora didn't groan, because Swift Wind would take that as a sign of defeat. She did allow herself a sigh, though. "Can't you think about what you want to say to Queen Angella and stop bringing this up?"

"I can multitask," he said. He seemed very proud of that fact.

"And I _appreciate_ that, you seem like a very smart horse. But I don't really like… talking when I'm worrying."

"You talk to Glimmer when you worry." He was _still_ grinning.

"You are _relentless_."

"You aren't subtle! And neither is she! I'm frankly shocked it took you two this long, to be totally honest. Which is why all I really wanted to say was that you shouldn't be worrying, because you have nothing to worry about. She's been digging you for, like, _awhile_."

"Yeah, see, okay, that actually isn't helping," Adora said, immensely aware of the uncomfortable way her stomach curled at that confirmation. And all that time, she'd been so sure it was all just in her head. "Also, you only just joined back up with us before the battle. How do you even know that?"

"Uh, I have eyes and I see the way she looks at you? Especially when she thinks you aren't looking?"

"… She looks at me when she thinks I'm not looking?"

" _All_ the time. Are all humans this bad when it comes to romance, or is this just you?"

"The Horde didn't encourage romance," she finally sighed, accepting that this was a conversation she had no way of escaping. "The Horde didn't encourage a lot in general, honestly. You mostly just had to be loyal, good at fighting, and weren't supposed to ask questions. So I think it's just me."

There was a long pause, as Swift Wind processed all of those words. Adora didn't dare to look at him during this silence—she'd seen enough reactions from her friends to know these things weren't considered normal. She didn't need to be reminded. Again.

"Well," Swift Wind said at last, "luckily for you Glimmer is already super into you, so the hardest part is behind you. And you're into her, so… you two really just need to talk about it when we get back to Bright Moon."

"Which is why we're walking back and not flying."

"I know! I'm a good friend. But… I mean, you really shouldn't worry. You're past what I'm told is the worst part for humans. You already know that she likes you, and you like her."

Adora chuckled. "And yet I'm worrying anyway."

"You are! I don't get it."

She was quiet again for a moment, turning her thoughts over in her head; regardless of how he was going about it, Swift Wind seemed to actually, genuinely want to help. And he was nice, for a talking winged horse. Maybe walking wouldn't be so bad.

"It's… complicated," she said at last. "I do like her, and I know that she likes me, but there's still a lot that we need to talk about. And… well, we haven't really had the chance to talk yet. So I've been thinking about it while we walk."

"And worrying."

"And worrying, yes. Like I said, it's..." She sighed. "Complicated. I can't think of a better word for it."

Swift Wind processed that, then he finally sighed himself. "Got it," he said. "Come on."

Adora blinked as the white horse cut in front of her; she stopped so she wouldn't walk right into him. "Excuse me?"

"You're going to worry the whole way back, and then by the time we're at Bright Moon you'll have yourself so worked up that you'll find some way to avoid talking to her at all. So come on, get yourself comfortable. We're flying back."

"… You don't _know_ that will happen."

Swift Wind gave her a look, ears flicking back.

Adora didn't make a sound as she climbed onto his back; anything she could have said at this point would be interpreted as admitting that he was right, and she refused to give him that satisfaction.

* * *

She could admit one thing at least, though she kept the words to herself: flying back to Bright Moon was _definitely_ shorter than walking back. A small jerk from Swift Wind knocked her off his back and onto her feet, and she only had a moment to turn and glare at him before he flew off into the sky again with a _wink,_ of all things. Like this was helping her.

Swift Wind, she was beginning to learn, was a little bit of a jerk. Well meaning, maybe, but still a little bit of a jerk. Still, he _had_ helped in his own way—not that she would ever tell him that. Adora was back at Bright Moon, and she'd been so busy holding on to her steed that she hadn't had a moment to think about what she would do when she saw Glimmer again.

Maybe if she was lucky, the princess would still be involved in meetings about the Whispering Woods. It would give Adora _some_ time, at least. She went to her room and left her bag on her bed, briefly debating unpacking before she decided to leave it alone for now. That was just a delaying tactic, and while she would have welcomed more time to think, she didn't want to prove Swift Wind right.

She wasn't going to get herself so worked up that she avoided speaking to Glimmer entirely. She _wasn't_ , no matter how tempting the thought was. They needed to talk, and she couldn't keep finding reasons to put it off when the world was already set on keeping them separated. So she closed the door to her bedroom before she could start thinking about it, and started walking.

It occurred to her after a few steps that she wasn't actually sure where she should _go_ to find Glimmer. The rule of fate dictated her best chance was probably going back to the stables, but considering most of her friend's work had to do with the palace, it seemed unlikely she'd be there; Adora would be more likely to find Bow, and as nice as Bow was, he wasn't the one she wanted to talk to.

(Had Adora known before this point that Bow was actually someone Glimmer had confided in regularly regarding her feelings—or vented to about her feelings regularly, which was probably the more accurate term—she would have reconsidered this stance. She didn't know this, and thus it never crossed her mind that speaking to Bow might actually get her closer to her goal.)

Ruling out the stables, that left three places Adora was reasonably sure she'd be able to find Glimmer: the meeting room, Queen Angella's throne room, or her own bedroom. After a quick moment of reviewing her time in the Rebellion, Adora crossed out the queen's throne room and decided there were only two places left for her to check.

She then took another moment to review everything she knew of Glimmer, and to note that so far the halls had been surprisingly quiet and rather sparse during her walk.

Right. Glimmer's room it was then, and the thought made Adora pause before she chuckled quietly to herself. Maybe that was more fitting to the rule of fate; having a much needed discussion in the place that had started everything.

She needed to find Glimmer. Thinking too much apparently brought out her inner poet.

At least it was a short walk. Before she could give herself enough time to think about it and talk herself out of it, Adora lifted her hand and knocked on the door, pausing to wait for Glimmer to give her permission to enter.

Permission never came, and after a moment she frowned. Had she been wrong? She'd assumed the princess would be in her room after a strategy meeting to rest, but perhaps she'd gone looking for Bow after all. If the meeting had gone badly, she might have needed to vent about it. The only downside to _that_ was, well… if Glimmer was out around the stables or the courtyard, there would be other people around. This wasn't a conversation Adora exactly wanted to have with people around.

Just as she was contemplating the merits of going to the library and borrowing a book to read in her room to kill time, Adora heard something through the door. It was so soft that for a moment she might have imagined it, but she didn't think so—it sounded like someone moving around to settle down.

So Glimmer _was_ in her room, then. Asleep, perhaps? It would explain why she hadn't reacted when the blonde had knocked on her door. A part of Adora whispered that she should still leave, but she gathered up her nerves and knocked again, a little more firmly this time.

From within the room there was a groan. "Come in."

Adora rested her hand on the door, then decided to be nice. "It's just me, Glimmer," she said.

"Adora!"

She took a small step back as the door swung open; her friend (was that the appropriate word for her at this point?) must have used her powers to reach it, because the door opened literally seconds after Adora made it clear she was on the other side and not one of the Rebellion's generals or Angella. And then they were face to face, and suddenly the taller girl found it was very hard to think at all looking into Glimmer's eyes.

"Hi," she managed at last, when her brain decided it wanted to reconnect to her mouth so she could say _something_.

Glimmer smiled, something bright and a little hopeful, and once again Adora found it _very hard_ to keep thinking. "Hello. Um—did you knock once before? I thought I heard something, but… I kind of hoped it was a dream, to be totally honest."

Now it was Adora's turn to smile as Glimmer stepped back and let her come into her room. "Been busy while I was gone, huh?"

" _So_ busy." Glimmer sat down on her bed, and after a moment the other girl sat down next to her. "I thought the meetings lasted forever when we were discussing how to fight the Horde, but this? This is like, _ten times_ worse than fighting the Horde."

"Really? I thought it'd all be… you know, calmer since there aren't any attacks going on."

"Well, yeah, I mean, it's calm. We aren't getting any reports of attacks, and rebuilding is going according to schedule. No one knows what to do about the Whispering Woods being gone, though, and of course since no one knows what to do about it, no one can _agree_ on what to do about it."

"Is it really that pressing of an issue right now?" Adora could have kicked herself as soon as the words left her mouth; of _course_ the loss of the Whispering Woods was a pressing issue, even during a time of recovery. No doubt it was still on the back of everyone's minds that without that extra layer of protection, the Horde could strike right at Bright Moon at any time. And if they had the technology to destroy the Whispering Woods…

The implication of it all was more than horrifying. No wonder Glimmer had been run ragged.

The pink-haired girl huffed tiredly and flopped onto her back, staring up at her ceiling. "You know how it gets," she muttered, kindly choosing to not acknowledge the blonde's previous question. "Peace is nice and all, and I know we fought hard to get it, but… it gives some people too much time to think about what comes next."

"Too much time to worry, you mean," Adora sighed.

"I was trying to be polite."

"It's just you and me here, Glimmer. You don't need to be polite."

"I know, I know, I'm just… trying to keep myself in the habit. Mom's actually giving me a lot of leeway lately, and I don't want to do or say something that'll make her regret it, you know? I want to prove to her I can handle this."

Without thinking, blue-gray eyes slid over to where King Micah's staff rested in the corner of Glimmer's room. She wondered if the weight of her father's weapon in her hands felt as heavy as the Sword of Protection sometimes did in Adora's.

"Have you eaten yet?" she asked, if only to buy herself time to compose herself from that surprisingly depressing thought.

Glimmer blinked, looking up at her. "Um… no. Gosh, what time even is it? I haven't had a chance to check, I've been in meetings since I woke up this morning."

And just like that, Adora's path was set. She might not have been able to help much when it came to deciding what to do next about the absence of the Whispering Woods, but she could at least make sure that her friend ate and drank something after back to back meetings on the subject. She hesitated, weighing the pros and cons in her mind, before she decided to throw caution to the wind and leaned over, pressing her lips lightly to Glimmer's forehead before pulling away and getting up from her bed. "I'll get you something from the kitchen," she said with far more confidence than she felt. "It won't take me too long, I promise."

The only response from behind her—because she didn't dare to look back to actually _see_ how the princess had reacted to that small show of affection that was could definitely be construed as more than friendly—was a strangled sound of what she assumed was agreement, and Adora was out the door and down the hall before she could let herself think too hard about what she'd just done.

The kitchen was thankfully sparsely populated when Adora poked her head in to scope it out, and she wasted no time in gathering up enough food for Glimmer. The plate she put together could probably pass for some sort of brunch, and she took a moment to pour drinks for them both before grabbing a tray and making her way back to her friend's room. She was quick and quiet, and slipped back through the door into Glimmer's room in what felt like no time at all.

Glimmer was still on her back on her bed, though she lifted her head up high enough to see Adora as she set the tray down. "Oh, you're back," she said. "That was, uh… fast."

Her cheeks were still a little pink, and there was something gleaming in her eyes that hadn't been there before. Adora took pride in that, and smiled sheepishly as she offered Glimmer the plate. "The kitchens were pretty empty."

"Well, still… thanks. This smells great. Didn't realize how hungry I was until now."

"You didn't eat anything at _all_? You're starting to sound like me when I'm thinking too much."

"I was busy! I had a lot of meetings, and I… I kind of forgot about it."Glimmer paused, then giggled nervously. "Though now that I think back on it, I'm pretty sure Mom mentioned wanting to take a break for food. It just got talked over with everything else going on."

Adora took a sip from her glass, carefully cradling it in her hands. "Well, now you have a break. Start eating."

"Nothing for yourself?"

"I ate before I flew back with Swift Wind."

Glimmer gently bumped their shoulders together, but she started eating. "You're taking all the fun out of this. I was ready to grill you when you got home. I was absolutely sure you were overworking yourself and forgetting to eat."

Adora grinned. "One of the things about working hard? At least for me, it was a lot of physical labor. It made me hungry."

"Well, _usually_ being in these meetings makes me pretty hungry! It's a lot of thinking and a whole lot of talking. I guess it just slipped my mind because it was more thinking and talking than usual."

"So all of that extra thinking means you didn't have time to think about being hungry?"

"Exactly! Mostly though, I'm annoyed now that you took away my perfectly valid reason for worrying about you."

"… You were worrying about me?" That thought probably shouldn't have pleased her as much as it did, but she couldn't ignore the warm feeling that blossomed in her chest and spread throughout her whole body at those words. "I mean—I wasn't doing much. I wasn't even really gone for that long."

"I know! I know that, I just..." Glimmer pushed around the remaining food on her plate, then sighed. "I don't know, I still worried. We didn't get to really talk before you left and I got pulled into meetings, and..."

"… And what I said worried you?"

"Well, yeah. A little bit." Having finished her meal, the princess set it aside and sipped from her drink. "You don't really talk about the Horde, or Catra."

Adora didn't reply to that. She couldn't deny it when it was true, after all; she'd admitted it herself. The whole situation was… she wished she knew a better word to describe it than complicated, but she hadn't managed yet.

"And I never got to say it, so I guess I'll say it now since you're here." The shorter girl took another sip from her drink, seemingly to compose herself. "I know we need to talk about… well, you know, _everything_. It'd probably be quicker for us to go over what we don't need to talk about, but..."

"But we don't need to talk about those things."

"Exactly!" The pink-haired girl nodded authoritatively. "So instead we should talk about the things we need to talk about!"

"Right now?" She probably shouldn't have been smiling at all of this, but Adora found once it started she couldn't stop. Glimmer was just being so _sincere_.

"No, actually!" she declared, sounding downright _triumphant_.

Adora blinked, thinking about that. She blinked again as she turned the thought over in her head a few times, trying to make sense of the words she'd definitely just heard with her ears. She blinked a third time, as she processed that she had heard those words, and then it finally clicked for her that despite hearing them, they didn't make sense when she thought about them.

"… What?" she finally asked. Or said, she wasn't sure how it came across. She wasn't exactly sure what tone to take in response to her friend's words. She was mostly confused, but somehow she felt like letting that show would hurt Glimmer's feelings when she sounded so _sure_ of her statement.

She _really_ wished she didn't find that as adorable as she did. It only added to her confusion on how to handle the moment. She didn't _feel_ like she was supposed to find this cute, but… well, she _did_.

"No, I know it sounds confusing, but hear me out." Glimmer shifted so they were face to face, and Adora shifted with her and smiled again when her friend grabbed her hands and held on tightly. "We need to talk about those things, they're really important. But we've both been really busy, and we're both probably tired, and I _know_ you've been overthinking it..."

"Hey! … No, actually, you're right-"

"… And that's okay because I've _also_ been overthinking it! So. We're going to relax right now, because we're both tired and we're finally back together. And then we're going to talk about the important stuff when we're ready, and we're not going to worry about it until then. Deal?"

"You know I'm not _good_ at relaxing," Adora finally said, after she took a moment to process all of that. Glimmer was still holding her hands tightly—a little too tightly, to be honest, but she wasn't about to ask her to let go for anything.

"You've been getting better at it, though! You actually kind of do it sometimes, even."

"I don't do it often, you realize?"

"Practice makes perfect! Starting now. Right now. Let's practice. Deal?"

Adora looked into Glimmer's eyes, long enough to take some pleasure in the subtle dusting of pink that was beginning to color her cheeks, then looked down at their hands and chuckled. "I think when you make a deal with someone, you're supposed to shake on it," she said at last. "That's going to be hard if we're holding hands."

It happened so fast that at first, the blonde thought that she'd imagined it; Glimmer leaned in and was gone in a blink, and all that was left of the moment was the warmth on Adora's cheek. She blinked a few times, processing what that meant, and then it was her turn to feel the heat rushing into her cheeks.

"Oh," she managed.

"I-I just—you know, some deals accept—kisses. I improvised! … Also you kissed me first both times."

"I did," Adora agreed, a little dazed. She didn't resist as Glimmer shifted and settled back against her pillows, pulling her along with her. She settled next to her, cheek against her shoulder, and closed her eyes with a small smile. "So. Relaxing? Deal."

"Perfect," Glimmer murmured into her hair.

And it really was.

* * *

I want to apologize for the sudden delay in getting this up. I was hoping to keep to a better schedule, but real life decided to take some time to punch me in the teeth.

That said, aiming to finish this before season 2 airs. At least I have time.


	4. Day 4: Pet Names

Haha so... season 2, huh guys?

Yeah, I know. I said I'd have this story done by season 2, and I swear I did mean it, but real life gets funny like that. To make a really long, personal story short my cousin died suddenly while I was working on this chapter, and it threw a lot of things off for me and my whole family. A part of me is still worried this might be all over the place because I came back to it after so long away, but... honestly I'm sick of looking at it, and I want to put it up for his sake and move on to finish this story.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy.

* * *

They couldn't put it off forever, of course.

They'd both known that from the start, and Glimmer wanted to be completely fair to the both of them on this subject: they'd planned to talk about it! They'd planned to talk about it soon, even! It wasn't something they had been purposely trying to ignore or avoid. Whatever was happening between them, whatever they were becoming together, they knew it couldn't continue until they talked. That they were both still so eager to talk about it, well—the princess took that as a good sign, especially considering she'd never actually thought at any point Adora would return her feelings.

(Had she actually _talked_ to Bow about any of this instead of simply venting about him to a situation that she was certain was doomed, he could have told her beforehand that Adora had shown several signs of returning her interest and mostly just didn't seem to realize it. But all of her talks with Bow on the subject had been purely vent sessions, and so he'd never had the chance to tell her this.)

But life had continued on without caring about what either of them had wanted, and there had been strategies to discuss and rebuilding to do, and so they had both been busy for days as everyone tried to make the most of this tentative, uncertain quiet from the Horde. Another attack would come soon, they all knew that, but there was no shame in recovering while they had the time.

The thing was now, that had stopped for the time being. The planning had died down for the most part—or at least they had agreed to take a break from the sessions so that everyone could keep their sanity—and the majority of the rebuilding that required time and physical effort had been finished. There was a strange sort of quiet, as everyone began to realize that they had a moment to slow down and relax. Most people admittedly didn't know what to _do_ with that time.

Glimmer knew what she wanted to do with it. And of course, because she knew what she wanted to do with it, she couldn't find Adora _anywhere_. How she managed to completely disappear was still a mystery to the princess; she was tall! And loud! Tall, loud people didn't usually vanish so easily! And Glimmer would know personally on the loud part: she'd tried for _years_ to disappear whenever she and her mother had gotten into one of their arguments, and it had _never worked_. Inevitably, Angella had always used the noise to find her.

So how Adora managed to disappear constantly when she was both loud _and_ tall wasn't fair. Clearly she was somehow cheating. Glimmer would have to ask her about it when she managed to find her.

She'd already checked Adora's room, the dining hall, the main meeting room, _her own room_ just to be on the safe side, and the stable on the off chance that maybe they were supposed to repeat their earlier talk in the rain. All of those places had turned up empty, and she was starting to become a little stumped. She'd even checked the training area on the off chance that Adora was there working on her swordplay—maybe secretly hoping that she'd be dressed down in the process, _they'd already kissed twice and they'd said they liked each other SHE WAS ALLOWED TO HOPE FOR THIS—_ but that place had also been lacking in tall, loud, blonde swordswomen named Adora.

(There _had_ been people dressed down during their training, but Glimmer hadn't noticed them. They weren't Adora, and therefore she wasn't interested in lingering to check them out.)

So now it was a little into noon, and they had the time to talk, but there was no Adora for Glimmer to talk to about it.

Well. That all just confirmed it, then. The world had it out for Glimmer.

Glimmer, specifically.

It was the only logical conclusion.

Had she had the moment to follow this particular train of thought to the end of its tracks, she would have eventually let out a scream of frustration at the general situation until teleporting all over the castle to find Bow so that she could vent at him about everything. But apparently before she got to that point, her train of thought was derailed off its tracks by fate's decision to give her a rare break for once. She heard a whinny overhead and the flare of wings, and she looked up.

Then blinked, and stared a little dumbly, as Swift Wind landed a few feet away from her and Adora slid easily off his back. Or maybe, at least, she _thought_ it was easily, but—mostly she stumbled a few steps and clung to him a little bit to steady herself as she adjusted to being back on the ground again.

"No," she rasped. "Never again."

Swift Wind rolled his eyes. "How was this different from when I flew you back to Bright Moon?"

"That was in a straight line! And—and I don't know, not as fast!"

"Hey, _you_ were the one who came to me this morning and asked that we start practicing for a battle scenario. What I did up there is totally valid in a fight."

"Yeah, sure, totally valid and _terrifying_. We are _never_ doing that again."

"Okay, first of all, that isn't really our choice. Second of all," he nudged her shoulder gently with his wing. "Are you afraid of heights? Because this is like, way beyond the average fear I've seen most humans express."

"I don't know! Maybe! I've never been that high up before!" Adora said. Or shrieked. It was probably shrieked, considering her voice had gone up a few octaves during this exchange. "And I've definitely never been up that high before while going that fast, a-and—and _moving_ like that!"

Swift Wind gave her a long, slow look. Glimmer was tempted to speak, but something told her to keep her mouth shut, and instead she watched as he brushed a wing along the blonde's back.

"You're going to need to take a deep breath," he said. "Because we are _absolutely_ doing that again at some point in the future. We both know it." He peered over her head, and smirked. Glimmer immediately didn't like that smirk. "And look, your princess is here waiting for you."

"My _what_ -" Adora whirled around and froze, as she realized the other girl was standing there. For a few seconds they just stared at each other as Swift Wind snorted in some mixture of amusement and annoyance. "Oh. Um. H-Hey, Glimmer."

Glimmer felt like she wasn't supposed to be smiling, but her lips were curving upwards anyway. "Hi, Adora."

"You, uh. You heard all of that, huh."

She briefly considered lying for the sake of her friend's dignity, and figured that there was no point in trying to do so. "Heard all of it and saw all of it."

"Good. Great. Just what I wanted to hear." The taller girl finally sighed, shoulders slumping a little, before she turned to face Swift Wind. "You're right. We need to do this again. Sooner than I thought, considering my reaction."

"Yeah, sure, no problem. Not a big deal, no rush." He shoved his wing into Adora, pushing her away from him and closer to Glimmer. "Now _go_. She was clearly looking for you."

He didn't give the blonde a moment to even think of a reply; the moment there was enough distance between them he flared his wings and flew away. Quite suddenly, Adora and Glimmer were left alone in the small clearing.

"Swift Wind's kind of a jerk, huh," Glimmer said.

"Yeah," Adora sighed. "That's something I've realized recently, too." She coughed into her hand, smiling sheepishly. "Were you really looking for me, or was that just more of him being kind of a jerk? At this point I honestly can't tell with him anymore."

"I was really looking for you. We finally have some time to ourselves, and I'm _pretty_ sure we don't have any new disaster brewing in the next few minutes and, um." Glimmer played with her hands, trying her best to ignore her nerves. There was nothing to be nervous about! They had to talk about this! They both knew that!

And yet, she was still nervous. Of course.

"And well, you know, we still need to—talk," she plunged on, deciding the best way to handle her nervousness was to talk until it went away, "about… you know, everything."

"… Yeah. I-I meant to find you about that since today's going to be pretty quiet for me, but I found Swift Wind first and started thinking about preparing for when I had to fly him into battle and… well. Here we are now. And here I am now."

"So..." Nope, not going to give herself time to think about it. She wasn't going to give either of them time to think about this, because that path only led to ruin. "Do you want to talk about it now? Or we could wait, it—it sounded like that bit of flying with Swift Wind really got to you."

Hadn't she just decided she wasn't going to give either of them time to think about it?! This was Adora's fault, clearly. She was just so pretty and nice and perfect in every way possible that she ruined Glimmer's thought processes.

Then Adora smiled shyly, and suddenly Glimmer believed that nothing had ever been her fault ever, at any point in time.

"No," she said, and she was still smiling shyly and that wasn't fair, but the princess couldn't even be upset about it. "No, I'm okay with talking about it now. It's something we need to talk about, especially if we want to keep this thing going."

Glimmer snorted. "Our thing, huh?"

"I don't know what else to call it! It's a thing that we have, I thought it was pretty fitting until we decided to call it something else."

"Well, hopefully this talk will help us figure that part out too." Glimmer put her hands back behind her back, to try her best to keep them still. "Do you want to talk about it right now here, or..."

Adora rubbed the back of her neck, tilting her head back to look up at the sky as she thought about it for a moment before she shook her head. "Here is fine," she said, plopping down into the grass and looking up at her smaller friend. "Unless you want to go somewhere else?"

"No! No, here is totally fine." It was private at least, and the weather was clear and warm. There were certainly worse ways to have this talk.

"Great! That's great, really. So, um… where do you want to start?"

It really should have been easy, Glimmer mused as she sat down next to the blonde. She was a princess and Adora was a former Horde soldier, just to start with. Even compared to that, Glimmer was a normal person—relatively speaking, in Etheria terms, her immortal queen mother aside—and Adora was the newest host for an immortal spirit that legends said was dedicated to protecting the land. They had no shortage of things to talk about, and all of them were surprisingly simple topics, really; most of it was simply just navigating how this fledgling relationship would grow with those particular truths.

There _was_ one topic that they needed to talk about along with all of that, though. It was by far the most complicated topic of them all (ironically), and that simply had to do with the impact it had on Adora's emotions leading up to this point. Logic would dictate that they should leave this topic for last, and tackle all of the other ones first. A way to sort of ease into it.

Glimmer cheerfully admitted, usually at the top of her lungs, that she wasn't the most logical person even under the best circumstances. And she _certainly_ didn't believe in easing into anything. For her, it was all or nothing.

"So," she said quietly, glancing at Adora. "Do you want to talk about Catra?"

It was almost interesting to watch the taller girl's reaction, honestly. The princess had never associated her with 'subtle', exactly; it wasn't an insult, Adora just wasn't a particularly subtle person even at the best of times. It became even more obvious the more she tried to be subtle about something, to the point that for the most part she didn't even bother with it anymore.

But her reaction when Glimmer said Catra's name—that was surprisingly subtle. A bit of tension easing into her shoulders, a slight stiffening of her spine and the smallest grinding of teeth. There was a lot of emotion there, and almost immediately the pink-haired girl regretted that she'd decided to not be logical about this. She knew _something_ had happened between them to cause the venom she'd briefly glimpsed during the Battle of Bright Moon, but Adora had been rather quiet about it.

"Or," she said hesitantly, "we can talk about something else instead. I mean, you're a former Horde soldier and I'm a princess, and a lot of people still _really_ hate the Horde. We'll have to figure out how to handle that. And then there's the whole She-ra thing, that's a pretty big deal."

"… No," Adora sighed, and just like that it all drained out of her. Her shoulders relaxed and her spine slumped, and suddenly she looked small and tired. "No, we should—we need to talk about Catra. I— _I_ need to talk about Catra. I haven't talked about her to you or to Bow, and I… I really probably should, at this point."

Glimmer hesitated again for another moment, then quietly inched closer and rested her hand on the blonde's back. When Adora didn't pull away from the touch, she began to rub it in what she hoped was a comforting manner. Her mother had done it for her sometimes, when she'd been upset or sad, and it had usually worked for her. "Okay," she murmured. "Let's talk about Catra. Take your time, yeah? There's no rush. We have all day."

Adora peeked at her and smiled weakly. "Do I look that bad?"

"… Do you want me to be honest, or do you want me to be nice?"

"You can be honest. I like that about you."

"Then, reminding you that you gave me permission to say this—you look bad, yeah."

That made Adora snort and chuckle, something shaky and watery as she looked away from Glimmer's gaze. "I _did_ give you permission. And I know it's true. I feel pretty bad." She sighed, looking down at her hands. "I'm trying to think of where to start."

"The beginning is usually a good place for that."

"I mean—I don't remember much of the beginning, is the problem. I don't even know where I came from. I used to ask Shadow Weaver to tell me, and she always refused. I'm pretty sure it only bothered me. Catra never seemed to care about it the way I did."

"So you met her young?" It was an obvious thread, and the princess grabbed onto it tightly with both hands. If Adora needed a little help to keep her going on this subject, Glimmer would happily give it to her.

"Pretty young, yeah. I don't remember a time she wasn't around. I don't know where we came from or how we got into the Horde, but we always had each other. I'm not even sure how we ended up together. I don't think it was Shadow Weaver's idea, she… she never really liked Catra."

Glimmer swallowed, keeping her hand on the blonde's back; something steady and stable to brace her. "Shadow Weaver raised you both, right?" Adora didn't talk about her either, but there didn't seem to be a point in bringing it up now when the discussion was leaning that way.

Adora chuckled again, but now it was tired and bitter. "She did. I have no idea how she got us or why she was raising us, maybe we were orders from Hordak. Looking back on it now, comparing it all to what I've seen in the Rebellion, I don't even think I'd say that she raised us, really. We were just tools she was given, and she used us the way that she saw fit."

"It sounds like she used you both differently," the shorter girl said, a little cautiously.

"She did. Like I said, she never liked Catra, and she _really_ liked me. I don't know why. I just remember..." Adora trailed off for a moment, exhaled shakily. "I just remember when we were little, she was _awful_ to Catra, and she told me-s-she told me it was my responsibility to look after her, or something _really bad_ would happen to her."

It was as if a hand had reached up from the ground through Glimmer's body and clutched at her heart, crushing it painfully in her chest. It took everything in her to not see red, and even then there was flashes of it along the edges of her vision. Suddenly, the fact that she had managed to punch Shadow Weaver once in the face hard enough to knock her over didn't seem like enough punishment. "How old were you?" she asked, shocked by how even her voice was.

Adora rubbed at her eyes. "I-I don't remember, gods. My memory gets really foggy when I start thinking back that far. I just know we were both young, and really small. She liked to tower over both of us when she was upset or disappointed."

"But you do remember her saying that to you."

"She said it to both of us, Catra—Catra was right there. I think maybe she was trapped? Somehow? She looked really scared and kind of like she was in pain. But we were both there when she said that. We both knew it."

"And you listened to her."

"Well, I mean—yeah, of course I did. She was threatening my friend."

It was easy for Glimmer to remember what things had been like when she was little. Her friendship with Bow wasn't exactly like the relationship between Adora and Catra, from what she had glimpsed of the two of them interacting in battle, but she could still imagine what it was like to be that small and have one person that you liked and trusted above everyone else. She couldn't even imagine what she would have done if Angella had ever made a threat like that, but knowing Adora the way she did and knowing how much she had cared about Catra, she could imagine the end result.

"Not that it mattered in the end," the blonde muttered, and the darkness in her voice jolted the princess out of her thoughts. "Because even after listening to Shadow Weaver for years, I didn't protect Catra from anything. She still got hurt, still got punished. It just happened when I wasn't around to see any of it, so I wouldn't be able to—to do anything."She exhaled, something shaky, and before Glimmer could think to say anything she was speaking again, an emotional rush of words that she'd clearly been holding in for some time. "And even if I'd known, even if I'd done something about it, Catra—Catra just thought I was doing it to be a hero, to show much I _owned_ her, because that was the seed Shadow Weaver put in us both. She… she thought in the end I only did those things to look good, to prove that I could handle her."

"… But you didn't," Glimmer murmured, after a few minutes had passed from that outburst and Adora still hadn't spoken.

Adora laughed, and the sound of it nearly collapsed into a sob. "I didn't think I did, but you know what? I'm not, I'm not even sure anymore, because she wasn't _wrong_. I _was_ on her all the time, because Shadow Weaver put it in my head that I had to be. I just—I-I thought she didn't understand, didn't realize what was at stake. And all this time she did, probably even better than I did in some respects, and there I was acting like an _idiot_."

She'd meant to just listen as the taller girl vented, she really had. A former Horde soldier, the host of She-ra, Shadow Weaver's chosen heir apparent, the young woman that had gone out and won battles and rallied the princesses and the Rebellion in a way neither of them had ever been rallied before. In so many ways Adora was strong, had been stronger than any of them had expected her to be, and a part of Glimmer had figured—hoped, maybe, optimistically, idealistically—that this discussion would be much the same way. But all of that was striped away now, and all she saw was an exhausted girl with shoulders slumped under the weight of it all on her, and staying silent was becoming almost impossible to consider.

And truth be told, Glimmer had never really been a quiet kind of girl anyway even ah the best of times.

"Hey. Adora, look at me." When that didn't happen, she gently urged her friend to face her and took both her hands, squeezing gently. "Adora? Sweetie? Please look at me."

Adora didn't look at her right away, and for a moment Glimmer felt her heart plummet into her stomach. She wasn't intending to force her friend to look at her, despite her request—hence why it had been a request and not an order, though the princess had the awful suspicion that if it _had_ been an order the taller girl would have immediately obeyed it regardless of how she felt—but she didn't know how else to proceed if Adora didn't look at her.

She only had a moment of concern about it, though, because after the moment ended those blue-gray eyes she liked so much met hers. The grip on her hands tightened at the same time, almost to the point of pain, but she didn't care. She didn't care because Adora was looking at her like she had asked, and she hadn't let go of her hands the whole time, hadn't pulled away from her, and there were actual _tears_ in her eyes.

Gods, if she started crying now, Glimmer knew her heart would break. It was already starting to crack.

"Thank you," she said, and could have kicked herself immediately for saying it, but her mouth had apparently decided to keep moving without any input from her brain. "For looking at me, I mean."

Adora laughed, startled and a little thick. "You're, uh, you're welcome, I guess."

The grip on her hands had slowly relaxed into something less painful, and Glimmer leaned forward to gently brush away the tears that were still in the other girl's eyes. She took it as a good sign when she didn't pull away from her touch. When she eased back, she managed a weak smile of her own. She still didn't know what to say, but she knew how she felt, and, well….

Glimmer had _always_ prided herself on her ability to improvise.

"You weren't acting like an idiot," she said, and took it as a good sign when she didn't want to immediately kick herself again.

Adora frowned. "But I-"

"Ah ah ah!" Glimmer rested her finger on Adora's lips to quiet her, doing her absolute best to ignore the small shiver that ran down her spine as her eyes immediately sharpened and focused on her finger. She pulled away to take her hands again. "I'm arguing a point here, sweetie. You can talk to me about it once I've finished my point, okay? Because you aren't an idiot. You've _never_ been an idiot. You aren't an idiot now, and you weren't an idiot when you were a child."

The taller girl's lips twitched. "So you think I'm smart, then?"

"You _are_ smart. You've _always_ been smart. And you—gods, Adora, you were a _child_. You were child who was raised a certain way because your..." What should she even _call_ Shadow Weaver? She had clearly been the only parental figure Adora and Catra had known their whole lives, but it felt like an insult to call her their mother with what she knew about her, with what her friend had just told her. When Glimmer imagined a mother, she thought of Angella; she thought of someone who loved her and looked after her and wanted her to succeed in life, even if they didn't always agree on how to succeed.

She swallowed, and made up her mind.

"… Shadow Weaver raised you, but she—she did a bad job of it, okay? She was a bad mom. Moms aren't supposed to be like that. They aren't supposed to take your best friends and hurt them and _use_ that against you to make you do what they want. They're supposed to love you, and protect you, and _support_ you, and she… she didn't do any of that, and that isn't your fault, okay?"

Adora was still looking at her. Glimmer took that as a good sign, because now that she was talking she didn't think she could stop. She wasn't sure if she wanted to stop, either. Maybe this was something she needed to say, because it was something that the other girl needed to hear. Maybe it would help.

She hoped it would help.

"You were a child," she said at last. "It shouldn't have been your job to look after yourself or Catra the way you had to. What happened in the Horde, your relationship with Catra, it… it's not your fault, do you understand? The base of it all, it's not your fault. If you want to try and fix things with her, that's your call and Bow and I will totally support you. But don't blame yourself when all of this started because Shadow Weaver failed."

Adora was still looking at her, but Glimmer couldn't read her eyes, couldn't take anything from the expression on her face. A moment of silence passed between them, and then another, and that was the moment when the princess began to worry and wonder if maybe she'd messed up and said the wrong thing. Maybe in trying to help, she had gone and made things worse.

 _Okay Glimmer. Okay, you got this. It's just damage control. Stay calm, you know how to handle this! Mom talked about it all the time! Sure, you didn't listen, but that never stopped you before!_

Glimmer clamped down hard on her worry—or she tried, at least, it felt like she wasn't succeeding at it as much as she would have liked—and took a deep breath as she opened her mouth. She could do this. She could stay calm. She could…

She couldn't do anything, because before she said anything or even _thought_ of anything to say—one of the flaws of improvising—she found that she lost all of the air that she had drawn in to try and speak, because she was suddenly being crushed as Adora lunged forward and hugged her, something tight and desperate and just a little painful. Glimmer hissed out a breath and wrapped an arm around the blonde's back, and felt the way she was shaking. She could have tried to say something, or patted her to get her attention, but she kept still. She slowly relaxed, and nuzzled her face into the blonde's shoulder as she shuddered.

She didn't know how long they stayed like that, Adora holding her and Glimmer letting her hold her. Eventually the former Horde soldier's grip on her relaxed, and the shaking gradually faded back into stillness. The princess felt dampness along her shoulder, but she didn't say anything about it and simply waited.

It was Adora who spoke first, in the end. "Thank you," she whispered, the two words shaking and thick with tears, and she finally pulled back a little bit so that their eyes met again. "I—I don't know why that got to me the way it did, but… thank you, Glimmer, for saying it."

"Hey, of course." She reached out carefully, wiping at the tears that still fell. "I admit I kinda winged it, but… I'm glad that it helped, at least a little bit. Do you feel better?"

"A little bit, yeah." Adora sniffled and Glimmer pulled her hand away so that she could wipe at her eyes herself. "Thank you again, I guess… I don't know, no one's ever said that to me before. I guess I needed to hear it."

The princess personally thought she needed to hear _way_ more than that, but that wasn't a discussion she wanted to have so soon after her friend seemed to have had a breakthrough. She leaned back and let Adora compose herself, and this time when things were quiet between them, it was a comfortable sort of silence.

"You gave me a lot to think about," the blonde said at last. "I know we… you know, need to _keep_ talking, we have more to talk about, but… can we stop here for today and pick it up later? I-I mean, you know me and my thoughts."

Glimmer smiled, struck suddenly and deeply with affection for the other girl. "Of course. There's no rush on this, okay? We can do it at your pace. I'm a very patient person."

There was a pause as Adora looked at her, lifting a brow.

"… I'm a mostly patient person," Glimmer amended.

Adora's brow only climbed higher, practically becoming one with her hairline.

"… Okay _fine_ , I'm not a patient person at all," she finally admitted. "But I can try to be, for you. Since that's what you need."

That got a soft laugh from her friend, and this time when Adora leaned in for another hug, it was gentler, with a squeeze that Glimmer liked way more than she would ever admit to anyone who wasn't Bow. And if it lingered a little longer than a normal friendly hug, well, she wasn't going to say anything about it.

When they pulled apart, Adora smiled sheepishly. "Um, before we go back to Bright Moon, I do have one more question."

"Yeah?"

"We don't have to talk about this now, I know we kind of dove right into this and did a lot, but, um..." She swallowed now. "When you were talking, you… called me something. I don't know what it means."

Glimmer blinked, thinking over all of what she had said to Adora in the last few minutes. She blinked again, processing all of those words and turning them over in her head, then blinked a third and final time when nothing clicked into place. "… I did?" she asked.

"Um, yeah. You did. It must be pretty normal for you, if you don't even remember it, but..." Adora rubbed the back of her neck, eyes flicking about nervously before she met Glimmer's gaze. "That word you used, sweetie. You said it to me a few times. What does it mean?"

She blinked a fourth time, as the clicking happened. "Oh! Oh, that, um… yeah, I did call you that a time or two, didn't I? I… huh, I wasn't really thinking about it."

"Yeah, you did. So… what does it mean, exactly? I'm just wondering, you don't—you don't have to tell me if you don't want to right now. I know we already talked about a lot of things."

"Oh! No, no, it's okay, we can talk about it if you want. It's not, like… a super heavy thing. I mean, I guess it is for some people? But it's not for me, so..."

"I think that's the first time I've heard you use that word, actually, so… it's at least kind of important, I assume."

Darn, Adora had caught that. Glimmer had _really_ been hoping she wouldn't, because she hadn't even realized she'd let the pet name slip out until the other girl brought it up. And once she'd been reminded of that fact, she'd _really really_ hoped that she wouldn't have to try and explain it. Curse the Horde and their general lack of basic affection!

But it was fine. This was fine. They were already so open to start with about being interested in each other, and using a pet name for someone wasn't an inherently romantic thing. She could totally explain this and she wouldn't be nervous at all while she was doing. It was going to be _fine_. She was only a little nervous anyway!

"Right, so, um, what I called you? It's a pet name, basically. It's something you can call another person when you're, you know, really attached to them instead of their name. It's a way of showing that you care about them."

Adora tilted her head to the side as she thought about that. "We didn't have that kind of thing in the Horde," she said.

Glimmer swallowed. "You uh, you didn't like it then?"

"No! No, I did like it—I mean, I do like it, a lot, actually, now that I know what it means." Adora looked at her now, and when she smiled it was small and shy as her cheeks went a little pink. "And I liked hearing you say it."

Well. Now Glimmer was a _lot_ nervous, and she was definitely blushing way deeper than Adora's cute pink. She was pretty sure all of the blood in her body had managed to flood into her face, from how warm it felt. She wasn't sure how the other girl was _still_ able to have this effect on her when they had talked and kissed—more than once, even!-but apparently that was something that wasn't going to stop any time soon, even at this stage.

She wondered, vaguely, if it had been like this for her parents. She'd have to ask Angella about it sometime, preferably without letting slip who she was talking about.

"Good!" she said. She most definitely did not shriek it a little, and it definitely wasn't something that made Adora muffle a giggle behind her hand. "I mean, you know, good. Because I liked saying it. I liked calling you that, because I like you a _lot_."

"I like you a lot too," Adora said, and now she wasn't trying to hide her giggles anymore.

"And I'm glad you're feeling better, and I'm glad we talked about this at least a little, and we can totally keep talking about this whenever you want! Because I like you a lot and I want you to feel better. It's also why I called you sweetie. Because I like you a lot, and you're really sweet. Like, _so_ sweet. It's almost unfair how sweet you are, except it's part of what I like so much about you."

"Uh, Glimmer?"

" _What?!"_ she definitely shrieked, and it was enough to push the blonde over the edge into outright laughing. Maybe it was just the build up from her emotions thus far, maybe it was something like a release after getting too deep into her own head about her time in the Horde, but once she started laughing she couldn't stop. So she didn't. She just leaned into Glimmer, and she laughed until her stomach hurt and she finally managed to stop and calm herself down, wiping at her eyes as she caught her breath.

Glimmer had the feeling that she should have been annoyed, but she couldn't work it up when Adora's laugh was so pretty and she was leaning on her like this, totally relaxed. And as her laughter died down, it seemed like she had really needed to laugh. So the princess sighed, recognizing that she had done this to herself, and said again, "What?"

"I was just going to say," Adora managed, "that if you wanted to call me that again you can."

"… Oh. Um. I can?"

"Yeah, you can. I was going to try and say it earlier, but you kept talking and, you know… you listen to me all the time when I ramble, and you _really_ listen to me this time, so I didn't want to interrupt you."

"You know you could have and I wouldn't have minded."

"Well, yeah, but..." Adora shrugged, and she didn't pull away from Glimmer as she glanced at her. "I also like it when you ramble."

"Okay, see, this is why I called you that in the first place," the princess sighed, absently lifting a hand to gently play with Adora's ponytail. "But I'm glad you like it when I ramble, sweetie."

Adora grinned. "Like that, yes."

It wasn't perfect, Glimmer mused to herself as they fell into comfortable silence. This—discussion, if it could even be called that much, was only scratching the surface. But they had at least started it, and it seemed to have helped her friend start to come to terms with some things she had been raised with in the Horde. That was better than nothing, by far.

"Hey, Glimmer?" Adora's voice was soft.

"Yeah?"

"Are you in any rush to get back to Bright Moon?"

"… Nah. I like being like this."

"Yeah, me too."

So they stayed like that for awhile, together. And if it was something like a start, well, that suited them both just fine.


	5. Day 5: After a Battle

You know, at this rate, I might actually finish this story before season 3. One more chapter!

* * *

It was a strange feeling, really.

Adora could confidently say that she had never considered that battles could be fought with _words_ before. She was certainly aware of the power of words, of the strength they held; how they could be used by someone who knew how to speak. She'd developed a great deal of respect for people who could do that during her time in Bright Moon, and had been surprised to find that she had a bit of a knack for it herself at times when push came to shove.

But it had simply never occurred to her before that using words to—to _soothe_ something, to reassure, could have such an effect. Talking about Catra, Shadow Weaver, the Horde in general, it… it had been like a war, raging on inside of her. It had _always_ felt like that, even when she had made the conscious decision early on to never speak on it. Provide tactical advice and insight into what little she knew of the inner workings of the Horde? Sure. There had been value in all of that. She could see why someone in the Rebellion would want to know about it.

And so she'd buried _everything else_ about her time in the Horde; her childhood, growing up under Shadow Weaver, her relationship with Catra, her friendships with the team she had one day been meant to lead. There was no need for anyone to have any sort of insight into her personal problems, after all, and she'd already caused enough issues from the start by being a former Force Captain. Better to not talk about it, she'd decided; to simply accept the Rebellion and Bright Moon as her new home, to accept She-ra as her purpose, to accept Glimmer and Bow and the other princesses as her friends, and go from there.

And she had! But it hadn't helped with the feelings inside of her, the constant struggle on a daily basis. It had been easy enough to ignore for a long time, at first, but then she'd found the ruins of the First Ones, and Catra had been there, and they had both met Light Hope, and, well…

 _Gods, it still hurts to think about_ , the blonde mused with a small sigh, absently rubbing over her heart to soothe the pang she felt there at the memory of it.

"You okay?" Glimmer's voice was soft next to her, and actually sounded a little sleepy. It made Adora smile, and she bit down on the instinctive urge to reassure the other girl that everything was okay. After the discussion they had just had, the pink-haired princess could handle some honesty from her.

"Just thinking."

"Anything you wanna talk about? I mean, I understand if you don't want to, we got into some pretty heavy stuff there, but… you know, if you want to talk I'll listen."

She couldn't bite back the chuckle. "Because you like hearing me talk?"

"Yes! I mean, wait, no." She could practically _hear_ Glimmer's frown without looking at her, which was good since she was warm and comfortable and didn't feel like moving. "I mean, _wait_ , yes! I _do_ like hearing you talk!"

"Knew it."

Glimmer scowled and poked her, making Adora giggle. "You're teasing me now."

"Maybe. Just a little bit."

That earned her another poke, but when she decided to finally shift to get a good look at the smaller girl, she could see that she was smiling. That was always a good sign.

As much fun as it had been though to change the subject and tease, she knew sooner or later Glimmer would circle back to her comment about thinking; probably sooner rather than later, with the way that she tended to approach things. And maybe it would be for the best to keep the momentum from this talk going, anyway. Change the subject, certainly, but it felt like after days of delay they were finally starting to move in the right direction. Now they just needed to make it the rest of the way.

"It wasn't anything bad," she said at last. "What I was thinking about, I mean."

Glimmer chuckled. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, Adora. I just wanted to make sure you were okay after all of that talking."

"Hey, it's fine. I'm okay talking about it. I was thinking actually that this… felt good. I feel better. I didn't think I'd ever be able to talk about everything like that."

The princess looked up at her now properly and smiled, and it was a little sheepish. "I have to admit, for a second I thought I'd made a big mistake. You never talked about the Horde or Catra, and I got worried that I pushed too far."

She might have, under different circumstances. Adora could understand Glimmer's concern in that regard, with how quiet she had always been. No one had ever _told_ her to keep quiet about all of it, but there had still been a feeling ever since she had accidentally sat in the king's chair: she was an outsider to the Rebellion, and one little slip would easily remind everyone of that. The feeling of it had eventually faded over time, especially as she had won more princesses over onto their side, but the belief of it had lingered.

Sitting here now, it felt oddly like she had won despite not fighting at all. Maybe it was just some delayed battle high from the Battle of Bright Moon, but she'd felt _that_ before and this was… different. It was something inside of her, something bone deep that finally felt like it was settling into place.

"Maybe if you'd asked before all of this you would have," she said at last, because she couldn't deny that it was probably true. "But… I don't know. I already felt pretty good after how fighting for Bright Moon went. Now after talking about all of this, I just feel better. Like I won a fight? That probably sounds weird. It sounds totally weird."

That earned her another poke, though this one was gentle. "That's not as weird as you think, sweetie."

"You don't have to be nice because you like me, you know."

"Okay, first of all," Glimmer's voice dripped with mock annoyance, and it made Adora smile, "I wouldn't be nice to you just because I like you, I pride myself on being _honest_ with people I care about."

"Really?"

"Yes, really! Second of all, I'm actually being completely serious." The act dropped now. "It's _really_ not as weird as you think. A lot of people feel better after talking about things."

Adora frowned. "I mean yeah, I get that, I've done it. But… feeling like I won a battle? I didn't even fight anything. There's no reason for me to feel like that."

Glimmer was silent for a moment, then she shrugged. "You kind of did win a battle though, when you think about it," she said. "I mean, yeah, you didn't fight anything physically. It wasn't a normal battle. But you were obviously still fighting with yourself about this, right?"

"… A little bit," Adora admitted, and smiled weakly when Glimmer gave her a look. She sighed. "Okay, a lot."

"Exactly. And, I mean..." She trailed off, thinking deeply to herself about whatever she was planning to say next, before she decided to keep going. "I don't get exactly what you've been going through, I'm not going to say I do, because… I don't. But I've gone back and forth a lot with myself, about what I want to do and about what my mom always wanted me to do. So I get what it's like to argue with yourself. And I know when Mom and I finally talked about it, I felt a lot better. Sometimes when something like that is really bothering you, and you finally settle it..."

"It feels like you won something," Adora murmured, finishing the thought before Glimmer could finish it. She wasn't sure if that was what the shorter girl was going to say, but it clicked for her.

"See?" Her friend grinned. "Like I said, it's not so weird. And I wasn't saying it just because I like you."

Adora gave her a gentle nudge. "You did say that you're always honest with people that you like."

"And I am!"

The blonde shifted, resting her cheek against Glimmer's hair. "I guess it just felt weird to me," she said at last. "Even when I talked about some of it, I never really… thought about it until recently."

"I'm not surprised. You were talking about years, and you haven't been away from the Horde for very long. Using your own logic, that's a pretty long time to be fighting a battle."

"Does it still count when I didn't even realize for so long that I was fighting a battle?"

"Yes, Adora, it still counts. Just because you didn't know you were carrying all of that doesn't change that you still were. It means you felt off and you didn't know why until now, and that…. I mean, it had to be exhausting."

"It was when I thought about it. Other than that, I guess I never really noticed it before because I wasn't thinking about it. It was all just… normal, until I started to realize that it wasn't." Adora shifted and rolled her shoulders, careful to not dislodge Glimmer from her comfortable position, then sighed after a moment. "Is it normal too that I still feel kind of tired?"

"Do you still feel better?"

"Yeah? I feel good, but tired. Is that normal? I mean… tying back to that whole battle comparison, I felt like this after we won at Bright Moon."

It occurred to Adora that maybe comparing this kind of feeling to how she felt after winning a fight wasn't the healthiest thing in the world, now that she actually had other things to compare it to. But considering that most of her experience came from fighting battles, it was the best thing she could consistently circle back to for a comparison. Even after time with the Rebellion, getting the chance to do other things, fighting was still something that she did the most.

Glimmer seemed to agree with the sentiment, because she chuckled. "Adora, sweetie, I promise you that how you're feeling is normal. That said, now that we finally have some down time, we should probably start expanding your experiences a bit so you don't compare everything to a fight."

"To be fair, I fight a _lot_. I'm probably going to keep fighting a lot still."

"I know! I know. But hey, since we're going to do this, I can introduce you to a _bunch_ of new things. It's going to be a lot of fun, you'll see. You'll—well, I hope you'll love it."

"I'll be going with you, right? Of course I'm going to love it, you'll be with me."

It was the truth, and Adora had always been nothing but honest even back in the Horde. She and Glimmer hadn't actually _confirmed_ anything yet, and they probably needed to, but she was pretty sure at this point that they were on the same page in regards to their relationship, which made the statement particularly honest since she knew for a fact that she would enjoy anything she went to because Glimmer would be there with her. She liked Glimmer, and she liked being with Glimmer; therefore, anything they did together she was going to love, because they were together. It was simple logic, and the truth.

It was the truth, but it must have still surprised the princess all the same because the taller girl heard her choke. She wasn't eating anything, she just kind of choked on air.

Adora shifted to glance down at her, blinking when she noticed that the pink-haired girl's face was so red that it surpassed her hair color. "Um, Glimmer?"

"What? It's nothing! I'm okay!" she shrieked, making the former Horde soldier jump with the sudden volume of it. Judging from the look on her face, she seemed to think that she was speaking with a regular tone of voice and didn't realize how loud she had gotten. Luckily for her, it was a trait that Adora found amusing and endearing, even when it made her ears ring.

"Um, are you? I think I heard you choke."

"I'm fine! I'm totally, completely fine! You just surprised me!"

"I did?"

"Yes!"

"… Why?" Adora asked. "I mean, um, that's actually a question, too, why does it surprise you? We've kissed a few times now. I kissed you the first time, even."

"You did! And we did! Kiss a few times! And, and..." Glimmer blew out a long breath, then took in a deep one to try and calm herself down. Adora wasn't sure how much it was working for her, but at the very least some of the color seemed to have faded from her face. "And I like you a lot, I know that you like me, and we've both talked. Not about _everything_ , I know that, but..."

The taller girl chuckled. "You mean about, you know, me being former Horde and you being a princess? The daughter of the leader of the Rebellion, even? Or about me being She-ra? Or about..."

Glimmer nudged her, and Adora swallowed her laughter. "Yeah, yeah. Rub it in, why don't you. You're lucky that you're cute."

"I can keep going if you want. We _do_ have a lot to talk about, but the stuff with the Horde and Catra were pretty big. So I'm glad you started off with that." The blonde paused, then looked down at the princess and grinned. "And I'm cute, huh?"

" _Very_ cute. And… hm, well, now I'm going to have to think of something we can do. Get this whole new experiences thing off to a great start."

Adora smiled. "Don't worry about it too much. I'm pretty easy to please. Like I said, honestly, as long as you're there I'm going to enjoy it no matter what."

That earned her another nudge, but it was gentle. "I remember, sweetie. I still want it to be a good experience for you. A first date should be something really nice, you know? You only get your very first one once."

That made the blonde blink, and she shifted to look down at Glimmer. "Have you already had your first date?" She sounded so _sure_ when she spoke about it, and someone who was as beautiful and as kind as her friend would clearly get a lot of attention. If she'd already been on a few dates, well, it certainly wouldn't shock Adora.

Or at least that was what she _thought_ , but the moment she asked her question the pink-haired girl blushed all over again. Not as deeply as she'd been blushing before, but there was definitely a little bit of color that was back in her face. She pulled away a little bit so there was some distance between them, playing with her hands.

The former Horde soldier hesitated, then gently took Glimmer's hands. It was enough to urge her to look up, though the color didn't fade from her face. "You okay?"

Glimmer laughed, shaking her head. "I'm fine, Adora, you're just… you're way too sweet with your assumptions. I've never actually been on a date before, so this will be my first one too."

"… Huh, really? I kind of just assumed someone like you would have been on a lot of dates before now."

"You are way too cute," the princess sighed, but she was smiling when she said it. The comment seemed to have cheered her up, and that made Adora happy.

"Am I? I really did think that."

"I know you did, and that's why you're way too cute." Glimmer took her hand, squeezing absently. "But I've never dated before. I really didn't get the chance to interact with anyone my age except for Bow, and he's, well… I love him, but he's more like my brother than anything. Trying to revive the Rebellion is the first time I've even met the other princesses, and they never really got a fair chance anyway since I met you first." She paused for a moment, thinking. "And I'm pretty sure Mermista was already dating Sea Hawk long before we showed up, as much as she likes to act like she's not."

"I don't get that part. Why would you date someone and act like you're not? She likes him a lot, it's not even well hidden."

Glimmer shrugged and chuckled. "Maybe ask someone who has more dating experience? Because I have no idea. And I think you can already guess that I can't act like that. I'm not sure how Mermista does it, but she and Sea Hawk seem to like it."

Adora smiled. "Well, I like the way that you act."

"Already? And we haven't even gone on a date yet. I'm doing better than I thought."

"I do think it helps that we've liked each other for awhile, at least a little bit." Adora nuzzled into her hair. A part of her wanted to kiss, and maybe it was silly to restrain herself at this point after kissing several times, but for the moment it seemed fitting to wait. "And I'd love to go on a date with you, by the way."

Glimmer blushed now. "I was working my way around to asking you out on one."

"I know.

"I was! I didn't expect you to beat me to it like that."

"I caught the hints." Adora paused, then smiled sheepishly. "And you know me, I tend to be blunt at the best of times. Uh, sorry. Do you want to ask me properly?"

That got a laugh from the smaller girl. "No, no, you're fine, Adora. I'm glad you'd love to go on a date with me, now I just have to like… decide on a place."

"It doesn't have to be anywhere fancy, you know. I've never been on a date before, so I have like… no expectations. As long as you're there and we both have fun, I'm going to enjoy myself."

"… Adora, sweetie? Can I be totally honest?"

"Yeah?"

"Those are _low_ expectations."

Adora thought about this for a moment, before she shrugged. "Probably. But it's the truth. Honestly, we could call what we're doing right now a date and I'd be totally happy with that."

"As easy as that would be for me, we're not going to do that," Glimmer said, shaking her head with amusement. "I appreciate you making the offer, though."

The blonde smiled. "So I guess this means we'll have to plan the date and everything? That could still be a lot of fun. I've never planned a date before."

"Neither have I. Guess it's something we can do together."

Adora finally shifted and got to her feet, absently dusting off her pants. She turned and offered her hand to Glimmer, and when the smaller princess took it she tugged her up. The pink-haired girl grinned, then used the momentum from the tug to lean up onto her toes and kiss the blonde properly on the lips.

It was their second proper kiss, ironically. And they hadn't been on a proper date yet, but it was already better than their first one.


	6. Day 6: The Future

"… So."

Glimmer glanced over at Adora as she spoke, absently weighing the risks and rewards of what she wanted to do. In the end she decided to go for it—they'd _just_ had a successful date (reasonably successful date!), and they'd already kissed a few times before anyway. She was pretty sure compared to that this was a small thing, and so there was only some hesitation as she reached out and took Adora's hand.

"So?" she urged, smiling slightly to herself when the taller blonde laced their fingers together tightly without any hesitation. That was a good sign! Definitely a good one! "I thought that went pretty well for a first date, all things considered."

"Pretty well?" It was a laugh, and Adora finally looked at her, eyes gleaming with amusement. "From what I read, I didn't think things caught on _fire_ when you went on a date."

"Clearly you weren't reading the right books."

"True. At least we weren't attacked while we were visiting the park, though… still. Fire."

"It was part of the _entertainment_ , Adora. Not everything that catches on fire is because of a fight, you know."

Glimmer decided to not mention that particular _display_ lighting up had probably not been planned during the park show; it had still made for an entertaining few minutes, and it was worth seeing the way the tall girl scrunched her nose up in thought as she reviewed the show in her mind's eye.

"Well," she said at last. "Sea Hawk would have liked the show, at least. He's always had a thing about fire. A… bit of a weird thing."

"He's lit things on fire outside of battle before," Glimmer reminded her lightly, her smile becoming bigger now.

"I don't think that was supposed to be entertainment. That said… it was pretty entertaining when it happened."

"Yeah, okay, I'm just saying it now." The princess gave her girlfriend's hand a squeeze, and the thought of calling Adora _that—_ even if it was still only in her head, they hadn't actually confirmed anything yet, but after all of this it had to be pretty close—gave her a thrill all the way down to her toes. "Watching Sea Hawk isn't going to be one of our dates, sweetheart."

Adora pouted. "And here I thought I had our second date all set."

"Nice try, but no." The pink-haired girl grinned at her, now. "Should I take it as a good sign that you're already thinking about our second date, though?"

The blonde flushed, now; something light and pink, and _very_ cute, as she rubbed the back of her neck and smiled nervously. "I-I mean, I had a lot of fun today. A-And you're still holding my hand, so I think you had fun today too? Maybe? Did I assume too much? I'm sorry if I did. You're still holding my hand."

She was rambling _and_ stammering. If Glimmer had felt like being mean, she would have let this keep going until Adora ran out of breath, but the day had already gone so well that she didn't want to let her believe otherwise. And besides, the idea of a second date was _very_ appealing. The fact that Adora was considering their future was very, _very_ appealing.

It was only a second date at this point, but still! That was some future thinking! That was a promising sign!

So she gave Adora a light tug to stop her, blinked in front of her, and leaned up to kiss her to stop that rambling. They were dating now, kind of. She was allowed to do these things. And the taller girl definitely liked it, because she sighed and relaxed into the kiss, leaned down into it.

Oh. Oh, okay, Adora was _definitely_ getting better at this kissing thing. She'd either read more romance novels, or she was a fast learner. Either way, it was… really nice. It took a moment longer than she'd planned, but Glimmer did eventually remember that she had to pull away for this conversation to continue.

She might have also remembered that breathing was a thing that they both needed to do. A little bit of both, really.

The tall blonde smiled shyly when the princess pulled away. "And you just kissed me," she murmured. "I'm going to guess that you had a lot of fun today?"

Glimmer chuckled and brought Adora's fingers to her lips, giving them a light kiss. "Yes," she said. "I had a lot of fun today, Adora. And I'm already very excited for a second date."

"And now I have to plan a second date," the blonde said, a stupidly happy smile breaking out across her face and making Glimmer smile in return. "Are you _sure_ you don't want to watch Sea Hawk? He can be pretty fun."

"Do I really have to say no again?"

Adora kissed her, now, and this time it was a short, chaste thing; something that Glimmer definitely understood, and of course, any time she was kissing the other girl was a _good_ thing, but she grieved the briefness of it all the same when they parted. "You don't," she assured her, giving her hand a squeeze as they started walking again. "Now I just have to think of something else to do for our next date."

Glimmer looked at her. "I can plan it, if you want."

"No, no." Adora waved her free hand, and the princess could see she had already made up her mind about this. "You already got our first date, I want to handle our second. I'll think of something."

They were silent for a time as they continued to walk, both of them lost in thought and just enjoying each other's company. Finally, though, Glimmer couldn't contain herself any longer. This was all a very good sign—an _excellent_ sign, certainly—but despite everything, they still hadn't really… made it official. Past the first date. And a part of her _really_ wanted to ask about that, now that they were past that first date hurdle and on their way.

Planning a second date, of course, meant that it was assumed that they were dating. It meant that it was assumed this was a relationship, one that would last. It meant that there was a _future_ for them, and they needed to talk about that now at least a little. Probably. Maybe.

Glimmer wasn't actually _sure_ , was the thing. This was her first serious relationship! She was figuring it out!

… Maybe it was time to swallow her pride a little and talk to Angella. She'd been married before, after all; she still loved her father a lot. She might actually have a lot of advice about this kind of thing, and love was… love was a _big_ word to be using this early, Glimmer knew that, but she also knew that she liked Adora a _lot_ already. She could easily see herself loving her.

But that was further off, yet, something she'd keep to herself—or something she'd try to, at least. No need to overwhelm the taller girl with all of that already when this was just getting started. The pink-haired girl might not have always been the most patient person in the world (as both Bow and her mother could cheerfully attest to. Several times. Over the course of many years), but she could at least try to be when it counted.

And Adora? She counted. She _really_ counted.

 _Yeah, okay, I need to talk to Mom about this sometime when we get back._

But first things first! She needed to say something. Something to make this official. Maybe she could even be brave and ask what Adora was imagining for them beyond a second date? Yes, she liked that thought very much. It would be nice to figure out if they were on the same page, at least. And they were alone, with no one else in the area. Now was the best time! Having some idea of the future, of what came next, certainly never hurt.

And yet, the warmth of Adora's hand in hers stopped her. At some point during their walk the other girl had laced their fingers together for an even better grip, and she was humming softly under her breath. Glimmer sneaked a glance at her out of the corner of her eye, and she saw something then that was still tragically rare but always precious: the former Horde soldier was completely relaxed, completely at ease. There was no tension in her whatsoever. At this moment, she was enjoying herself without any reservation.

And just like that, any thought of asking about the future, of what came next, died before the words even left Glimmer's lips—something that happened to her rarely (she could admit it!), and that just made it feel even more important. She gave Adora's hand a squeeze instead, and smiled to herself when she heard the taller girl's breath hitch at the small show of affection.

They would need to talk about the future, eventually. They would need to talk about what came next, when people began to ask what kind of name their relationship had. She knew that day would come. But today wasn't that day.

"Hey, Glimmer?"

Today, it was enough to know that they had a future together, with each other.

"Yeah, Adora?"

"I think I have an idea for our second date. A real one, I mean."

"Great. I look forward to it."

And for now, knowing they had that future together was enough.

* * *

And that's that! Hope you all enjoyed reading, I enjoyed writing. And finished before season 3, too! Not my original goal but hey, it works.


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